all wet

Posted by admin | October 9, 2018

At first I was going to call this blog "wet cat", but that was a little close to something a little sinister (think of a different name for cat). Not that I'm afraid to go there, but sometimes I like to refrain from being overly vulgar. But, damn, is it hard to keep my mind out of the gutter.

Let's get back to what I want to talk about. We have been getting a ton of rain lately. By reliable sources, we've gotten 4 inches in the last week and most of it has been a drizzle or a light rain. This has led to a general melancholy around my house. Jynx has been pissed that he hasn't been let out very much and the dogs are holding their piss as long as they can so they don't have to go out. (I said I wouldn't be overly vulgar not that I would completely avoid it!)

Last night, I went to let the dogs out and Jynx ended up sneaking by me. He had snuck out on Sunday and he didn't last long. So, I warned him that he'd want back in soon.

About five minutes later (probably less), I went to get the dogs. They came right in, but the cat was nowhere to be seen. I called for him over and over. My wife even called for him from the couch. That didn't help. I walked into the yard and looked around. I first looked in the dog house thinking he would use that as shelter. He was there or anywhere else that I could see. I finally spotted movement by the fence. I threatened to leave him out if he didn't come in. I went back in to make good on my threat.

I wanted to go to bed. This wasn't getting me any closer to bed as I didn't want the cat out in the rain all night. He needed to come in and he needed in now. I called for him some more. After a few minutes, he finally made a slow walk across the yard. Then he took his time crossing the patio. He sometimes is afraid to come in if it looks like he would get tackled by the dogs, so I made sure they were well back. Still, the cat just stood there. After what felt like an eternity, the cat came in. I closed the door, shut off the light, and took the dogs to bed. My wife hollered that I needed to towel off the cat. I thought it a fitting punishment that the cat just remain wet for not coming in when I called for him. I think my wife dried the cat.

Part of my story is that I released Shorts as a way to get my feet wet in the publication world. Alien Fear had been long done before this release. I liked writing Shorts so much that I wrote Dark Matter. I was hoping that by selling my short stories, this would entice agents to pick up and read my novels (Gun Smuggler's Tale was also complete by this point). This was at a time where agents were absolutely afraid to read new author's stuff. Before this, I had gotten a few agents to read the full novel of Alien Fear, but they ended up too scared to run it up to publishers. In frustration with these agents, I decided to quit getting my feet wet and to get all wet. It didn't hurt that Shorts was selling well.

Unlike agents, Jynx and I aren't afraid to get wet. Twisted and Flaming Curse are both looking to drop in 2019 with Twisted coming very early in the year. I call that a wet year!